March On Auschwitz

By Tjark Kunstreich, translated by Arm The Spirit from Junge
Welt, 9 April 1996

Anti-Semitic Demonstration to Support the Construction of a
Supermarket at the Memorial Site

Around 100 right-wing nationalists demonstrated on Saturday [April 6]
at the former concentration camp Auschwitz to support the construction
of a supermarket inside the 500-meter protection zone which UNESCO
erected around the memorial site. In the last few weeks, the Polish
government bowed to intense international pressure and stopped
construction on the supermarket—against the wishes of the city
government in Oswiecim. An earlier order to halt construction issued
by Poland's Minister of Culture was ignored by local authorities.

Demonstrators carried banners with slogans such as “Jews Out Of
The Government” and “Down With The European
Union”. At a rally organized by various far-right parties, Jerzy
Bartula of the National Party criticized “Jews from the other
side of the ocean” who were seeking to halt the construction of
the supermarket. Boleslaw Tejkowski of the National Association of
Poland, the organizer of the protest, spoke of the “capitalist
imperialism of the Jews” while at the same time warning of the
“increasing strength of German Nazism”. The demonstrators
were able to march unhindered through the gates of the death camp and
onwards to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The head of the German-Polish corporation Maja, Janusz Marszalek,
distanced himself from the action, which was held to show solidarity
with his construction project. The company, which Ignatz Bubis
[prominent Jewish leader in Germany—ATS] has described as
“extremely right-wing conservative”, had been the subject
of controversy in the past, particularly after it took control of the
controversial Carmelite Nunnery on the memorial grounds and regularly
unfurled anti-Semitic banners from its windows. Only after years of
protest did the Pope finally order to nuns to move out. There is now
an orphanage in the building. The construction of the supermarket is
being touted as a social project, which German investor Georg Shreg
claims will create jobs for local orphans. The former banker from
Auerbach in Germany's Upper Pfalz region, who owns 49% of the
project's stock, claimed to be surprised by the recent
protests. But Shreg is quick to point out that he has not tried to
make contacts with any Jewish or anti-fascist organizations.

The shopping center with supermarket and home supplies store will be
located right next to the old factory building on the memorial site,
which former Auschwitz detainees have demanded for years be torn
down. Wladyslaw Bartoszewsky, former Foreign Minister of Poland and
head of the international Museum Committee, has denied claims from
investors and the Oswiecim city government that the memorial
site's Museum Committee was given prior notice of the construction
plans. Former detainees point out that the plan to build a supermarket
is simply the most recent attempt to make the site more of a Christian
and Polish nationalist memorial. The overwhelming majority of those
killed in Auschwitz were Jews who had been deported to their
destruction from German-occupied lands all across Europe.

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